Celebration of honesty

DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
4/19/2006



Five birthdays ago President Joseph E. Estrada was at the nadir of his life. That was 2001, April 19 and just a little under three months from the day his mandate to lead the nation was stolen from him. He was under detention and defamed as the most evil man in the Philippines. About a week after that lonely and troubled birthday the Edsa Tres “true people power” rising occurred and ended with the bloody massacre at the gates of Malacañang and Gloria declared a “state of rebellion” that exist nowhere in the country’s statutes. This year, it is a totally different birthday celebration for Estrada.

April 19, 2006 sees a happy President Estrada enjoying a resurrection of his once unparalleled popularity amongst the people. Maybe the best birthday present for Erap was already delivered weeks in advance of his birthday, when the most relied upon public opinion polls reported the restoration of his pre-eminent place in the eye of the people which he tops again amongst the nation’s political leaders. Tops in trust ratings and tops in the people’s choice to lead the country after the detested Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is taken away from the post of presidency she once stole and later cheated to keep.

Unlike the forlorn celebration of five years ago, Erap in his birthday this year will be greeted by over 300 VIP’s who’ve confirmed attendance to his birthday mass celebration at the St. Peter’s Basilica on Commonwealth Avenue. At least three bishops have accepted to say mass, as well as about a dozen priests. Many of the VIP’s are former sworn enemies of President Estrada who have seen the true Erap through these five years of broken promises of Gloria Arroyo and uplifting revelations of the power of Estrada integrity, dignity and magnanimity in suffering.

There are but a few incorrigible fanatical anti-Estrada elements who continue to hold out against the overwhelming truth surfacing from Erap’s Sandiganbayan trial. I just read one of them, that Juan Mercado who in his most recent Inquirer column repeated the tired old black propaganda against Estrada that have been debunked by time and evidence. They can not come up with anything new anymore. It’s the same with one e-mail writer to us who insists that Estrada is as decrepit as the media once painted him to be; but obviously these people are behind the times.

The overwhelming majority of Filipinos are honest people ready to see truth when time and evidence present them. These are the regular Juan de la Cruzes who have no vested interest in keeping the jaundiced view of Estrada and nothing to gain by having an innocent man perpetually condemned by lies. In the eyes of the sincere and honest Filipino it is clear that Estrada has already been gifted with the blessings of innocence, such that a number enough to put his trust rating above even a Santa Tita has already emerged to register this fact on the political Richter scale.

On the eve of Estrada’s birthday, that will already be last night by the time this is read, thousands would already be joining “torch lighting” celebration to light the start of the way for Estrada’s inevitable march to freedom. This will be conducted out side the St. Peter’s Basilica on Commonwealth, where an outdoor mass will also be said. A late eveing “Jam for Justice” with six or seven bands of alternative cultural groups will play for the crowd through the night. This was organized by lead groups KMLG and MARE to start the celebration for Estrada’s birthday.

Early on the morning of the 19th there should be even more people lined up outside the St. Peter’s Basilica to greet President Estrada as he arrives for his birthday mass which will be celebrated by Bishop Tobias, Bishop Labayen, Bishop Gregoria among others. The celebrities and personalities we don’t have to mention here as the news media will certainly report them. The symbolic events will be Estrada’s breaking of bread with leaders of the masa, balloons “liberated”, a poem by Ronald Lumbao read, and then off to the fourth testimony day at the Sandiganbayan.

Estrada’s birthday rites will be scrutinized for its political significance can not be avoided. The growing presence of former anti-Estrada politicians side-by-side those who have kept the faith with Estrada will be statement and a challenge to the current regime in Malacañang as well as to the Asean and international community that the pressure for regime change is escalating, not waning. The Gloria regime, beleaguered by the unending failures of its deceptions and machinations like the Mayuga report cover-up and the “death penalty” Church-bribery for Cha-cha, will be put on the defensive again.

One of the factors in Estrada’s political resurrection has been the publics’ turnabout on Estrada’s “what you see is what you get” honesty in contrast to the inveterate and irredeemable lying of Gloria. Estrada never hid his true self and it took time for some, especially among the middle and upper classes, to appreciate naked honesty rather than hypocritical peek-a-boo games the “respectable” crowd plays. The shock from Gloria’s betrayal of the image and promises she made people expect at Edsa Dos, now it should be clear – honesty is the best policy.

(Tune in to 1098AM, 2-3pm T-Th; 6-7pam M-W-F)